Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I do every year after Youth Parliament, today I am bringing the words of the youth representative from Yellowknife South to this House, ensuring all Members and the public hear the fresh perspectives, innovative solutions, and policy insights reflected in the voice of our youth. And so, Mr. Speaker, this year, Yellowknife South, who was represented by Lauren Tordiff, and these words are hers:

As young people, we inherit the challenges of today and the responsibility to create solutions for tomorrow. If we want to tackle issues like the high cost of living, we must ask...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely, Mr. Speaker, and I will say one important thing that's come on this project is that very typically departments do community readiness working plans on large scale infrastructure projects and would typically do them a year or so out from construction.

Mr. Speaker, the communities in the Sahtu have been are very clear. They want that work starting now, and so I can say we have put an application in to the federal government to realign some of the ICIP money that is supporting the Mackenzie Valley Highway so that we can get the working groups for these readiness...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, on my left I have the deputy minister of finance Bill MacKay. And on my right, Mandi Bolstad is the deputy secretary to the financial management board.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am here to present the Tabled Document 340-20(1), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures) No. 1, 2025-2026. This document proposes a total increase of $178.555 million in capital expenditures, comprised of the following items:

$92.94 million for infrastructure expenditures funding for projects that were not completed in 2024-2025. This amount is fully offset by unspent appropriations in 2024-2025;

$41.6 million for contributions to Housing NWT for infrastructure investment in public housing;

$20.9 million for increased costs associated with the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, again, just so that we're clear as a get-go, a project can request a carryover only under specified circumstances, and that is specifically if either there is already substantial work underway or if a contractual obligation exists. So on -- you know, there's different reasons why different projects can see particular carryovers and, you know, they can range from anything from a contract being signed, you know, right at the line and such that they then end up, you know, requiring a carryover because they didn't quite meet the cutoff for having, you know, the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There certainly have been changes over time, Mr. Chair, so there are MACA contributions in 2019, 2020, and 2021 were higher than what they continued to be thereafter. I'm not in a position here to say why in the last sort of -- why that change was made some now five years ago. Certainly would be happy to look into that further if I -- if it's helpful. But, really, Mr. Chair, the bigger -- the biggest single loss is coming as a result of the changes in the kind of funds from the lottery revolving fund that's just simply, as I said earlier, not seeing the kinds of revenues...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the project is in the implementation phase which is hopefully a positive word. The plant has been substantially completed already. It is expected to be fully commissioned in this current summer. There was some modification required for some of the ice harvesting related systems and that is where the carryover, I believe, originates, and that system had to be modified and then reconstructed, so that is where the carryover came with this. The plant is otherwise, as I said, operational, and I -- it would be hopeful would be fully implemented and therefore not see...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, so I'll see if we can get the specifics on the lottery revolving fund just shortly. I can say that in terms of more broadly how we get to where we are, where there's a deficit in this particular fund. Mr. Chair, there's a couple of factors at play. One is that the revenues being received from lotteries are not simply -- or simply not keeping up with the costs and the expenditures. Lottery revenues are trending downwards and, meanwhile, the cost of sending students and youth and their associated coaches and sport teams on trips are becoming ever more expensive...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have these projects right now broken down one by one, so, for instance, by Inuvik, by Hay River, etcetera, so I can't give a simple number. I can say these projects have -- if I'm not mistaken, all four of them been subject to delay over more than just the one fiscal year. I can recall back in just around the times of COVID, there was a change because the estimates that were done pre-COVID in terms of bed requirements were updated through and then immediately towards the end of when the COVID-19 pandemic was subsiding. That led to some changes in planning...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it was my pleasure to be the seconder on this motion. I'm going to try to be relatively brief, but I do think it's important, Mr. Speaker, that the public hears some of the perspectives on this, including around the idea of freedom of expression/freedom of speech, in this context.

Mr. Speaker, freedom of expression obviously is extremely important, particularly political expression. This is an essential feature of democracy in my view and it's enshrined in the Charter of Rights, which is something that inspires much of my professional life. Being a part of...